Every month, a group of legendary MFC past players gather together for their regular ‘Barassi Lunch’ at the Bentleigh Club. This month, they were celebrating a special occasion, as premiership ruckman John Lord reports
AT THE REGULAR Bentleigh Club lunch held by players from the 1950s and 1960s, Hughie McPherson, Norm Smith’s great mate on the bench and the man first credited with being the original ‘ruck rover’ was invited along to receive a special autographed copy of the new Ron Barassi biography.
Barass acknowledges Hughie’s contribution to the game, and the success he and other trainers and officials made with our team.
Hugh played two years with Footscray before joining Melbourne, and is one of the few players to have played both with and against Norm Smith, who he rated as the best ever.
He could tell many a story about Smithy and the club and officials he was so proud of, as we were to have him on our side.
When asked what is was like to play against Smithy, Hughie said he was never good enough to man up against him, but when asked how he would handle him if he had to he replied, ‘I would just whack the bugger one, I was a dirty player’.
He and Norm, and Albert Chadwick and Jim Cardwell were close mates, with a lot of respect for each other and an enormous love of the game and their beloved Demons.
Hughie joined the players on a special day for two birthday boys - long time supporter, assistant Secretary and regular all round good guy, Geoff Swan, 91, who also at one time was John Lord’s commanding officer in National Service, and Brian Dixon, who reached his three quarter time - the big 75.
Many attended and attached photos of Hughie and the book, being harassed by Ian Thorogood and Geoff Tunbridge, the spoils of the birthday cake and a demonstration by Clydie Laidlaw, supervised by Blue Adams taking on his third sweet plus the cake.
